DESIGN THINKING FOR CDIO CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Design Thinking (DT) is a human-centric approach to designing product, process, system and services. This paper aims to show how DT methodology and principles can assist curriculum developers empathise and gain deep understanding of their students. Insights on students’ deep needs and learning behaviours can inspire curriculum development and teaching approaches that better engage students in active learning. The thematic Advancing CDIO curriculum development approach involves 4 themes, namely Mapping, Enhancing, Innovating, and Sustaining. For mapping the focus is on ensuring the continuous relevance of the curriculum. This involves conducting environmental scanning to better understand what are the emerging trends and the arising opportunities and challenges. Insights on the forces driving the changes for future of work help to determine and define the future skills expected of graduates. For enhancing CDIO skills, it is set in the context of Conceive-Design-ImplementOperate (CDIO) real-world systems and products. The emphasis is on enhancing students learning experience in a multi-disciplinary environment where students learn to work and collaborate with students from different disciplines to develop a project. The third Advancing CDIO theme on innovating teaching and learning approaches as well as learning space design explores how pedagogy and space design could be integrated to create conducive learning space that supports learning. Lastly, the sustaining phase describes how to determine the requisite resources and capabilities to consistently deliver quality CDIO programmes. The paper also shares the experiences gained from implementing engineering and nonengineering programmes through applying the design-led approaches in developing CDIO curriculum.